Zusammenhang zwischen Soziabilität und Sprachentwicklung von mehrsprachigen Vorschulkindern in Deutschland

Linguistic and social skills are essential for success in school as well as for everyday social and professional life. At the same time, these skills are the key to successful integration and form the basis for equal opportunities. Data from the Federal Statistical Office show that people with a migration background in Germany still are severely disadvantaged. Insufficient German language skills are an important reason for this. Therefore, action is required, especially since the population in our country is becoming more and more diverse. It is common for people worldwide to grow up multilingually. In some regions of Germany like Hesse already more than 50% of the preschool children have their roots in other countries and cultures. Integration is now considered as a task for the whole society, which must be mastered in an interdisciplinary manner. In this regard, preschool education plays an important role in preparing children for the increasing cognitive and social demands at school. There are already several studies that suggest a mutual influence of sociability and language development. Language is acquired through interactions with the social environment, while language skills in turn play an important role in the development of sociability. There is a lot of research to do. The aim of this work is therefore to investigate on the reciprocal relationships between sociability and language proficiency and to examine cultural differences in sociability in a particularly large study sample. The subjects were four- to five-year-old multilingual preschool children from day-care centers in Hesse and parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). The data of 1182 (78,9%) of 1498 tested children could be used for the study. The average age was 58,1 months (4;8 years), the sex ratio was equable (52,4% male, 47,6% female). The Hessian language test “Kindersprachscreening” (= KiSS.2) was conducted with all children to determine their German-language competences. Children were categorized as those with and without deficiency in German. Additionally the language score (KiSS.2-Gesamtscore = KGS) was formed. The sociability was documented by the daycare center teachers based on information on the children’s playing and speaking behaviour. From these data, the sociability score (Soziabilitäts-Gesamtscore = SGS) was formed. Using several Mann-Whitney-U-Tests, Spearman Correlations and a Linear Regression Analysis the correlations between language and social skills were determined. In addition, separate calculations on KiSS.2 subtests regarding their associations with sociability with the same statistic tests as well as an investigation of differences in 86 SGS in dependence of the children’s language background with a Kruskal-Wallis-H-Test and several Mann-Whitney-U-Tests were carried out. Significant differences in the SGS were found between children with and without language deficiencies, as well as a positive correlation between SGS and KGS. A higher sociability was associated with advanced language skills. Likewise, positive correlations between the results in all subtests of the language screening and the SGS were found. Performance in KiSS.2-subtests “Grammar” and “Vocabulary” correlated most strongly with sociability. Only small differences in SGS were detected between children with different non-German first languages. On average, children with a Turkish-speaking background showed lower sociability than children with other first languages. Similar findings had already been objectified in previous studies. Disadvantages of Turkish-speaking children in the German educational system, their marginalisation, socio-demographic characteristics and cultural differences in upbringing of Turkish and other children are discussed as possible explanations for this result. Sociability differed less than expected depending on the first language backgrounds. One reason for this finding can be traced back to a partial coverage of social skills by SGS. However, a more differentiated assessment of sociability was not practicable in this doctoral thesis due to a large sample size and for cost-efficiency reasons. Furthermore, other works on this topic found the largest differences in social behaviour between people from East Asian and Western countries, while our study mainly compared children with different Western backgrounds. Some implications for the future can be derived from the study results. First, a very large proportion of multilingual preschool children had insufficient German language competences. This underlines strong need for support in order to provide these children with equal opportunities at school and the job market. There is a need for better education of professional staff like for example educators and paediatricians. The identified correlation between social and language skills allows for a second important conclusion. New interdisciplinary educational approaches are needed, which are integrated into everyday life and focus on both areas. Third, there is a clear need for research and action, especially with regard to cultural and first language-dependent sociability and the multilingual orientation of educational institutions in the course of increasing migration.